Chemotherapy misconception

Many advanced cancer patients don’t understand that chemotherapy is palliative, not curative. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found 69 per cent of patients with terminal lung cancer and 81 per cent of those with terminal colorectal cancer hoped for some sort of cure from chemotherapy.

To understand this misplaced optimism, researchers surveyed 1200 patients with stage IV cancer at diagnosis who opted for chemotherapy.

While non-white and Hispanic patients were more likely to express mistaken optimism, so were patients who rated communication with their physician as very favourable.

This suggests patients perceive physicians as better communicators when they convey a more optimistic view of chemotherapy.

But an editorial in the same journal questioned what patients think of as a cure? Rather than eradication of disease, perhaps for some it means less pain or less incapacity tomorrow.